Court Refuses Trial in TV Rerun Case

Published 8:00 pm, Monday, February 18, 2002

The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to order a third trial in a decade-old fight over unauthorized television reruns.

A television station owner wanted the court to make it harder for companies to collect large damage awards in copyright cases. Justices refused, without comment, to consider his case.

The Supreme Court had earlier used C. Elvin Feltner's case to rule that people accused of copyright infringement are entitled to have a jury _ not just a judge _ decide how much money they must pay.

That 1998 victory could end up costing Feltner, who owns Krypton International Corp., more than $20 million.

A judge ordered Feltner in 1994 to pay Columbia Pictures Television about $9 million. In his second trial five years later, a jury said Columbia was entitled to more than three times that amount.

Feltner had not paid Columbia royalties to use reruns of the shows "Hart to Hart," "T.J. Hooker," "Silver Spoons," and "Who's the Boss?" Some of the programs ran on stations Feltner owned in Florida _ in Fort Pierce and Jacksonville _ and in Birmingham, Ala., court records show.

His latest arguments involve the calculation of copyright violations. He said the jury should have been allowed to consider whether he should be penalized for each airing of an episode.

A judge had determined that he wrongly aired 440 different episodes. Feltner said a jury could have decided he was responsible for four copyright violations _ one for each of the four programs. Under that scenario, Feltner said he would have to pay just $400,000 instead of $31.7 million.